About our members
Sri Chinmoy, Marathon Team founder
Sri Chinmoy founded the Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team in 1977 and guided its growth into a pioneering organiser of endurance events. A sprinter in his youth, Sri Chinmoy was a frequent participant in marathons and ultraraces organised by the Marathon Team, and in his later life took up weightlifting to demonstrate the inner strength that meditation can bring.
(Video: Sri Chinmoy is interviewed during the 6 and 10 day races)
Rupantar La Russo, race director
Rupantar began serving the Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team in 1985 at the inaugural 1000 mile Race. In 1991, Sri Chinmoy asked Rupantar to oversee the global Marathon team’s activities as well as directing all races and other sporting events in the New York area. He writes a lot for this website, and has spent considerable time compiling an archive of the Marathon Team's 40-year history.
Suprabha Beckjord
Suprabha is the first woman ever to have completed the world's longest race, the 3100 Mile Self-Transcendence Race, and one of only two to have finished the race 13 times. Between the years of running the 3100 mile race, and the 2700 mile race that served as its precursor, she has clocked up a total of over forty thousand miles. She is also the former world 1000 Mile women's record holder.
Karteek Clarke
Hailing from Edinburgh, Scotland, Karteek has managed 11 successful swims of the English Channel since his first attempt in 1997, and he is still in training to add to that total. Karteek has also competed in six and ten day running races.
Ashprihanal Aalto
The 'Flying Finn' from Helsinki holds the record for the 3100 Mile race - 40 days 9 hours and also the record for the most finishes (14). Asprihanal works as a courier in his home city of Helsinki, which he manages to combine with his training, running all over the city in the early hours of the morning!
(Video: Asprihanal breaks the race record in 2015)
Ashrita Furman
Ashrita started breaking Guinness world records in 1978 and currently holds over 200 records - the only person in history to achieve this feat. Many of his records are in unusual disciplines, but nonetheless are great feats of concentration and dexterity - his records include the most balloons broken with his teeth, the fastest five miles on stilts, and juggling upside-down!
(Video: Ashrita is interviewed about his records in Budapest, Hungary)
Dipali Cunningham
From Melbourne, Australia, Dipali Cunningham is one of the outstanding women's ultrarunners of all time. She won every edition of the women's Six-Day Self-Transcendence Race in New York from 1999 to 2015, and in 2009 she set a new women's world road record of 513 miles at the age of 53.
Tejvan Pettinger
Tejvan Pettinger is a UK amateur cyclist, who rides for Sri Chinmoy Cycling Team. He won the UK national hill climb championship in 2013, and is known as a hill climb specialist after winning over 60 hill climb events within five years. He has also finished 2nd in the UK national 12 hour time trial championship (284 miles), and 3rd place in 2014 National 100 mile TT.
Vajin Armstrong
Vajin has represented New Zealand in the 2011 Mountain & Ultra-Distance Commonwealth Championships, finishing 8th in the 55km trail race. In 2010, he won New Zealand's 60km Kepler Challenge Mountain Run at his first attempt. In 2016, he won the prestigious Swiss Alpine Challenge (see article)
Vasanti Niemz
Vasanti Niemz was the first member of the Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team to swim the English Channel in 1985; 25 years later in 2010, she completed a 'channel triathlon', swimming, biking and running from Dover to Aachen, near the German border.
